Fisi leads Renault home ahead of Alonso - Sun 19th Mar 2006
Giancarlo Fisichella led home his team-mate Fernando Alonso to complete a Renault clean sweep at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Italian had started from pole and made the most of problems for his rivals behind to record his first win since the Australian Grand Prix a year ago.
Honda's Jenson Button was a fighting third, but had to give way to the pace of Alonso in the closing laps.
Kimi Raikkonen's title hopes took a blow when he crashed out on lap one with damage to the rear of his McLaren, apparently caused by contact from behind.
Juan Pablo Montoya had an inconspicuous race on his way to fourth in the remaining McLaren, with Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher, fifth and sixth, respectively.
With Fisichella able to control the race from the front, an otherwise lacklustre grand prix was kept alive with the fight between Alonso and Button.
After fuel rig problems in qualifying, Alonso started seventh, but had jumped up to third by the end of the first lap and began one of his trademark charges.
Button was quicker earlier in the race, but the Spaniard showed why he is world champion by making up time after the Honda driver's second pitstop.
Alonso emerged from his final stop on lap 44 two seconds clear of the Englishman, whose quest to win his first Formula One race goes on.
Ferrari will not look back at Malaysia 2006 with great fondness after engine changes compromised their weekend.
Schumacher was unable to vault the impressive Nick Heidfeld for much of the race until the BMW engine expired late on and the German even wound up behind his far less experienced team-mate Massa, who made just one pitstop all afternoon after starting from the back of the grid.
For a time, it looked as if Schumacher would be ushered by, as so often happened in the past at Ferrari, but the Brazilian was allowed to beat the seven-time world champion after deservedly outracing him.
Jacques Villeneuve took seventh for BMW and Ralf Schumacher claimed the final point for troubled Toyota.
Williams had entered the race with high hopes having qualified third and fourth, but Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber were forced out of the race with Cosworth engine problems by lap 17.
It was also not a good day for Red Bull - Christian Klien had to pit at the end of the first lap with a damaged front wheel, possibly caused in the incident with Raikkonen, while David Coulthard's race was over by lap 10.
Speaking after the race, Fisichella said: "For Renault a one-two was the target but other people are really close to us.
"We had a great car in the qualifying session and again in the race, apart from the graining on my tyres after the pitstops.
"It was the perfect race, it was a tough race physically, mentally because it was so hot. But I was quite confident and quite comfortable in the car.
"It was a great feeling in Melbourne last year, I hope my bad luck was in Bahrain (where he retired with engine trouble) and I want to keep going and score a lot of points for me and team.
"Melbourne is not my favourite track but I have fantastic memories. The package is really good and the potential is there to fight for the win."
After a fuel rig problem handicapped him in qualifying, Alonso was prepared to gamble at the start to make up places.
Starting seventh, he was third by the first corner, where he was able to consolidate before launching a series of quick laps which leapfrogged the world champion over Button by the time of his second and final pitstop.
He felt he had the pace to win but settled for the eight points as title rivals Raikkonen, who crashed out, and sixth-placed Michael Schumacher faltered.
"Starting from pole, I think I was quick enough to maybe win the race, but these things happen," Alonso said.
"I just tried to manage the race after what happened in qualifying and we managed to score eight points, which is more than we predicted.
"From lap 12-13 the gap was too big to 'Fisi' and Jenson, they were very fast, and at the end of the race I was concentrating on getting Jenson. Fisi was too quick today.
"To finish on the podium means to be consistent for the championship if I want to win it again. This race is more important than the first race to me because the points gap to Raikkonen and Michael has opened.
"Probably this is my favourite circuit, I've always been quick here and there seems to be something special with this track."
Button was left to once again contemplate what might have been after starting second and sounding bullish before the race.
His quest for a first win goes on, although he believed there were mitigating circumstances.
He said: "We want to be winning races so just to make the podium is disappointing. But these guys have proved how quick the Renault is, especially around this circuit.
"I was held up by Scott Speed for quite a few seconds just before my second stop and that cost me a lot of time - maybe that was enough to come out the pits in front of Fernando. But looking at the full picture, we're just not as quick as the Renaults.
"We finished 30 seconds ahead of next car and some of that was down to Fernando holding them up at the beginning, but even so it's just the Renaults that seem to be very, very quick and have the edge over us.
"We are their closest rivals but we are still not quite on their pace. The car is not where we wanted or expected it to be and we have to make a step forward in a couple of places.
"I've got an idea where we're losing out to them, but I'm going to keep that to myself.
"We've just got to hope we solve the issues we've got in testing next week and move forward because somebody needs to challenge them."
